Other then the incident over the lost ATM card in Georgia, we have been fairly lucky in that we have managed to hold on to all of our belongings. Until now. The other day Monica left her toilet bag in the bathroom of the hotel in Kunming. By the time we realized this, it was too late to turn-around and go back. Now, in theory, a lost tooth brush and some shampoo shouldn't be too big of a deal and easily replaceable. But this is Monica we are talking about and of course she was visibly upset, probably in part because I was just yelling at her for buying some $35 hand cream that was of course with the bag. In anycase, it was at least worthwhile to come up with a plan to potentially get the bag back.
The plan was simple enough. Vanessa called the hotel and they were able to locate the bag. The were to courier it down to Jinghong (our last town stop in China). We knew the bag wouldn't likely arrive till the day the rest of the group left to make a break for the Laos border. As such, I'd stay back and wait for it to arrive and then take public transport to Laos. As I said, all quite simple, except the bag never arrived at any point during the next day. I had a nice day hanging out in Jinghong on my own. Ate a couple of nice meals, played around on the internet and even had a blind massage (that is a massage carried out by a blind person). But still very frustrating as now I needed to decided should I stick around another day and wait for the bag falling further behind the group or leave early the next morning without the bag. Ultimately, I decided to leave the next day. True, Monica wouldn't be happy with me, but I didn't fancy a 9 hour public bus ride in Laos, when I wasn't even sure if the bag would arrive tomorrow or not (Chinese couriers clearly could learn something from FedEx or DHL).
What now follows is an account on how to get from Jinhong, China to Laung NamTha, Laos. It is simple enough to do, but I write it out for future travelers as information on the web is a bit sketchy. All information is valid as of early August 2009
--Take a bus from Jinghong to Mengla, China. They run regularly and the fare is 38 Yuan. My trip took 2 and half hours.
--In Mengla, you have to transfer from one bus station to the other. But if like me, you are desperate for a piss, look for the petrol station, which is just north of the arriving bus station. Otherwise, doesn't appear to be any other toilet in town. Once you are no longer running around like a crazy person, you will be approached by someone offering to take you to the south bus station, change money, sell you their first born child, etc. I chose a bicycle rickshaw. And if you think I was joking about the selling children thing, most of our conversation revolved around his 23 year-old daughter and how he wanted her to marry an American... maybe I wanted to stop and meet her? No, I am already married. Well, do you have brother? Yes, but he is not in China. But maybe he will come to meet my daughter. Anyway, long story short: Steven, if you are reading this and fancy a Chinese bride that you can pick up in Mengla, I have her phone number. I didn't stop to say hello to her, so have no idea what she looks like, but my rickshaw driver assures me it will be a perfect match as your kids will speak both English and Chinese and can thus get a job anywhere.
--From the second bus station you take a very local and very packed mini-van all the way to the border at Mohan. My trip took about hour and half (after spending about half an hour in Mengla itself transferring). The fare is 16 Yuan, which the bus driver appears to supplement by skirting around the toll booths via some very dodgy roads (ok, they're not really roads, more just muddy paths).
--At the border, things were very straight forward on the Chinese side and I was through in about 10 - 15 minutes (no lines). It is then a few kms to the Laos post and I took a tuk-tuk for 3 yuan. To get into Laos, just needed to fill in a few forms, pay for the visa, push away a few Chinese who were trying to cut in line and was through in less then 20 minutes.
--To get from the border to Luang NamTha, you just need to talk to the pick-up drivers waiting as one of them will be going that way. The negotiated fare here was 20 Yuan. Note, they are happy to take Chinese currency, so you can potentially wait, as I did, to get to Laung NamTha to change money into Kip. The trip takes about hour and half. The driver will stop along the way and pick up other passengers.
So all in all, a fairly easy trip, even if I wasn't able to accomplish the main purpose, having said that it is still more comfortable and convenient to travel on the big, blue truck.
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